“Lana helped as well. It became about her being so young, but he knew it was me taking away his prey. That’s how he views them, and already he was watching me. He’d asked me out before he’d gone after Tessa, and I turned him down. I’d seen him a time or two walking along the headlands by my street. He didn’t have to do that. He did it on purpose. That was before I met Savage. I didn’t respond to his voice, and that intrigued him, I think. At least at first. Then it was a matter of pride. I took something he valued. Then it was a challenge. He came to my house with Doris, trying to turn her against me, showing me he could manipulate her.”
She looked around the restaurant and lowered her voice. Mostly, she didn’t want Savage to know. “I made a terrible mistake that day. I wasn’t going to see Savage again. I felt empty and lost without him. I was so angry that Brandon would dare come to my house with Doris, that he’d take advantage of an older woman who had so little joy in her life.”
She shook her head, trying not to think about that moment when she’d made the decision to show Brandon that she was quite happy to bring him all the way down. If he wanted to go to war, she was more than happy to oblige. He’d tried his voice on her several times. He’d used it on Doris and, like an idiot, Seychelle had countered his influence right there, right in front of him, opening herself to him. It wasn’t a lot, but it was an in.
She should have backed off there, but she hadn’t. “I knew better, but he was so sure of himself. So positive that he could take Doris back anytime he wanted, and I’d be afraid of him. Like a lot of men, he believes males are superior to women in every way and his talent is stronger than mine, just because he’s a man.” She shrugged. “I wasn’t at my best. I was missing Savage and upset that he’d been with another …” She broke off.
Breezy and Blythe exchanged a long look. Seychelle was fairly certain they knew what happened. Blythe did. All of Torpedo Ink probably did. They seemed to be in each other’s business. That was difficult for her. She was a private person for the most part. She’d grown up alone, and she tended to spend long periods of time by herself. She’d come out of her shell for brief singing gigs, and then she’d crawl back into her house and pull her armor around her.
Shifting uncomfortably in her seat reminded her of Savage’s punishment for even engaging with Brandon. Going near him. Strangely, the aching pain on her bottom felt comforting, as if Savage was there with her. As if he cared enough to tell her in a physical way that she wouldn’t ever forget that Brandon Campbell was a man out for revenge, and he was plotting to harm her—and he was. She’d given him a far more powerful tool, if he knew how to wield it, than she’d admitted to Savage, and she wasn’t looking forward to telling her man she’d done that. And she had to. She just didn’t know how.
“I knew better, but when he tried to use his voice on Doris, to turn her against me, I made certain to look him right in the eye, something a man like him can’t take. I let him see that I wasn’t meek. I wasn’t afraid. He hadn’t conned me or made me submit to him. I also let him see his voice didn’t work on me, and that every time he tried to find a path inside my brain to make me submit, I turned it back to find a path inside of his.”
Blythe sat up very straight. “Wait, wait.” She tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear. “I’m struggling to understand what you’re saying. I know that several of the club members can use their voices for various things. I’m not certain I realized that your gift was that different or that someone else could in any way compromise you through it.”
Seychelle wasn’t happy going into detail. Anything she said to these women would get back to their husbands. As president and vice president of Torpedo Ink, the men would expect their wives to tell them anything that could eventually impact the club—like Seychelle’s screwup. Savage needed to hear it first.
A shadow fell across the table, and she looked up. Tony Ravard stood looking down at them, his green eyes moving over Seychelle with a look she couldn’t quite interpret before it touched on Blythe and Breezy. An older woman was on his arm. Seychelle knew her, had been to her house numerous times and knew she frequented the bingo hall. She was a widow, very sweet, a member of the Red Hat Society and friends with Inez and Doris. Seychelle often had tea with her at the Floating Hat and played cards at her house. Never once had she associated her with Tony. Not one single time, but she should have. They shared the same last name.